Factsheet: Advancing tree equity and growing community canopies

Have you considered how to put equity at the centre of your tree planting projects? This factsheet explores ways that local governments and community partners can centre equity in their urban forestry plans and practices.  

What is tree equity?

Tree equity is a dimension of urban forestry that seeks to address disparities in how urban forests and other greenspaces are distributed in communities across Canada. It involves taking steps to improve access to local trees and greenspaces for those who are statistically the least likely to benefit from these spaces. By applying an equity lens to urban forestry, local governments and their partners can assess how trees are distributed across neighbourhoods in relation to factors such as race, culture, income or education. This can help inform tree planting efforts and ongoing tree maintenance.

Tree equity also means ensuring all communities have a voice and are active participants in the planning and management of tree planting projects. There are many ways to put equity at the centre of these projects. For example, you can prioritize planting more trees in low-income neighbourhoods, ensure accessibility features are included in project designs and hire suppliers and tradespeople from equity-deserving groups.

Beyond individual planting projects, local governments can work with community partners to ensure that the urban forest as a whole is managed in a way that is equitable and inclusive, involving multiple stakeholders and rights holders in decision making and stewardship. 

Why is advancing tree equity important? 

Advancing equity in urban forestry is vital to ensuring that the benefits provided by trees and greenspace are available to all.  

In Canada, historical and current instances of environmental racism have led to equity-deserving groups (including racialized residents, low-income residents and residents with disabilities) being more likely to live in neighbourhoods with low tree canopy cover and limited access to greenspaces. These trends appear in communities of all sizes.  

Key resource: Nature Canada’s report, Bringing the Canopy to All, shows that in communities across Canada, neighbourhoods with greater proportions of low-income and racialized residents often have lower tree canopy cover than more affluent and less racialized neighbourhoods.

The social, environmental and economic benefits provided by trees are indispensable in creating liveable and healthy communities. Communities that lack adequate tree coverage are more vulnerable to health impacts from environmental hazards like extreme heat, air pollution and flooding. By improving access to trees and adopting equity-focused approaches to urban forest projects, local governments can: 

• Reduce the number of heat-related deaths and illnesses in equity-deserving communities.
• Lower residents’ utilities bills in areas experiencing energy poverty.
• Create outdoor gathering spaces to increase social connection and improve mental and physical health in nature-deprived areas.
• Improve resilience to flooding and other extreme weather events in high-risk areas with aging infrastructure. 

For more information on the benefits of trees, review our factsheet on making the case for trees in your community.

How can local governments advance tree equity through urban forestry? 

Advancing tree equity requires a vision, setting priorities, innovative thinking to shift the status-quo, collaboration and accountability. Where resources are limited, local governments should prioritize investing in low-income neighborhoods with low canopy cover. These investments have the potential to provide greater benefits, significantly improve quality of life and create resilience to climate change impacts.  

Wherever possible, local governments should collaborate with community organizations, particularly those led by equity-deserving groups, to collect data, lead consultations and inform decision-making. 

Assess your urban tree canopy cover to identify opportunities for equitable planting 

An important first step is to create a baseline tree inventory and canopy cover assessment. Conducting a spatial inventory using aerial or satellite imagery will help determine which areas have low canopy cover. If you already have a more detailed tree inventory, you can use it to learn more about specific gaps or areas with fewer and less diverse trees.

Next, collect data about the communities living in these areas. You can use census data or other surveying techniques to learn about the people living in these neighbourhoods. Resources such as HealthyPlan.City or American Forests’ Tree Equity Score can help you understand how different equity indicators, such as income, race or age, are represented across your community and in areas with low canopy cover.  

For more information on tools and technologies that can be used to help map and monitor urban forests, review our urban forestry technology and tools factsheet. 

Develop urban forestry plans and policies that centre equity and create accountability 

Plans made today about planting, tree protection and management will have lasting impacts for generations. An urban forest management plan (UFMP) articulates a local government’s goals and sets out a roadmap for implementation and tracking progress made towards the management, expansion and protection of healthy and resilient urban forests.

If your municipality does not currently have a UFMP or is planning a new edition, consider how equity can be embedded in the plan as a key performance indicator or a guiding principle. This will create greater accountability for including equity considerations in future planting or management activities. A UFMP should have information on the current state of the urban forest (including areas with low tree equity) and a list of priority actions to address identified gaps.

If your municipality is not currently updating or developing a UFMP, consider other policy opportunities or strategic initiatives to increase equity. This could include creating or updating a tree planting action strategy that centres tree equity, developing tree protection bylaws, or updating your municipality’s public engagement strategy to better connect with diverse communities.  

Involve equity deserving groups in decision-making

A key aspect of equity-focused urban forestry is gaining perspectives and input from diverse communities, particularly those that are historically marginalized and underserved. The following are some best practices related to community engagement:

• Provide information that is culturally and linguistically accessible.
• Consult communities on the timing, format and location of any public consultation activities. Provide accommodations so that they can actively participate.
• Seek out and include all relevant community members, including Indigenous peoples whose rights may be affected by urban forest management activities.  
• Approach different equity-deserving groups based on their specific protocols for engagement and in collaboration with community organizations representing these groups.
• Build intentional relationships with diverse communities at all stages of the planning process. Before making any decisions, gather input on community values and interests. Continue engagement after a project is complete.  

Working with external consultants with lived experience who specialize in conducting community-based consultations with equity-deserving groups is an important way to ensure your engagement approaches follow best practices.  

Key resource: Tamarack Institute’s guide to advancing climate equity through place-based collaboration highlights important questions, ideas, stories and resources that local governments can use to collaborate and engage meaningfully with community members. 

Leverage partnerships to achieve tree planting and other equity goals 

Ambitious tree planting in communities across Canada is needed to meet canopy cover targets and increase tree equity. However, planting trees in areas with low canopy cover is often challenging due to the lack of plantable areas, high impervious surface cover, poor soil quality and other factors.

An important way to tackle this challenge is to leverage partnerships to increase access to plantable spaces and get more trees into the ground. Partnerships with community organizations and housing projects, schools, hospitals and other places with suitable land and community access can provide opportunities to increase canopy cover in neighbourhoods where people live, work and go to school.  

On private property, programs designed to encourage and subsidize planting trees for residents, schools and businesses are important ways to increase canopy cover. For the survival and health of the trees planted, build in educational opportunities to ensure trees are planted properly and to cultivate a shared stewardship over the trees in your community.

Collectively, these partnerships offer ways to extend the benefits of the urban forest across more of the community, foster public buy-in, and integrate more perspectives and experiences into the management of the urban forest. 

Next steps

Here are additional resources that can help you get started with advancing tree equity and growing community canopies: 

• Tree Canada, Equity in Canada’s Urban Forests  
• Nature Canada, Bringing the Canopy to All
• Canadian Forest Service and University of British Columbia, The Social and Economic Values of Canada’s Urban Forests: A National Synthesis  
• City of Toronto, A Tree Equity Tool for Greener Neighbourhoods
• Ian J Dyck, University of Manitoba, From the Ground Up: Addressing Equity in Winnipeg’s Urban Forest
• American Forests, Tree Equity Score  
• HealthyPlan.City
• Tamarack Institute, A Guide to Advancing Climate Equity through Place-based Collaboration
• Canadian Forest Service, Sowing the Seeds of Indigenous Knowledge 

This resource was created in partnership by Tree Canada and FCM’s Green Municipal Fund for the Growing Canada’s Community Canopies initiative, which is delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and funded by the Government of Canada.